Covenant Community

Bridgetown Church

Covenant Community

INTRODUCING

This year, we introduced a communal Rule of Life for Bridgetown Church. 

Everyone who calls Bridgetown home is invited to participate and begin incorporating these nine practices into their daily and weekly rhythms and routines. 

However, we know there are some who hunger for more and are ready to take steps of commitment to these practices.

With this, we are beginning the Covenant Community.

Covenant Community is a group of people who covenant together to practice Bridgetown’s Rule of Life, gathering quarterly for celebration and reflection, and annually for a retreat and vow ceremony.

If you are already practicing most of the nine practices and have been in a Bridgetown Community for at least a year, you are invited to prayerfully consider and discern if this opportunity is right for you, and take the first step by registering for our Covenant Community Course below.

Learn more about the Covenant Community

  • The Covenant Community is for those at Bridgetown Church who have been in a Bridgetown Community for at least a year and have a desire to live by Bridgetown’s Rule of Life alongside others who have also made this commitment.

  • To begin the journey of becoming part of the Covenant Community, we offer the Covenant Community Course, a 7-month cohort for people who have been in a Bridgetown Community for at least one year, have some level of familiarity with the nine practices of Bridgetown’s Rule of Life, and have both the desire and margin to commit to this transformational journey alongside others.

  • This 7 month course will be split into three parts: Introduction Discernment, The Practices, and Next Steps. The first part, Introduction Discernment, is a 6 week period focused on understanding the invitation to Covenant Community and gaining tools to help discern whether or not this invitation is for each of us. (It is likely that some will discern an invitation other than the Covenant Community and, so, not continue on to parts two and three.) For those who discern an invitation forward, the second part will involve exploring the practices individually as we pay attention together to how God uses each to transform us. For the third and final part, we will spend three consecutive weeks reflecting on what God has done and talking about what comes next. As this season comes to a close, what is the next invitation that God might be extending? For those who discern an invitation deeper into Covenant Community, this cohort will end with a retreat to celebrate and plan for the next year.

    Also, there are two main components to the first year of the Covenant Community: Class Sessions and Formation Groups. As the focus of this course will be less about lecture and more about reflection and discussion, there will only be 11 Class Sessions. Formation Groups, the second component, are groups of 5 people who will meet bimonthly to reflect, process, confess, celebrate, and discern together. These groups will begin meeting in Part 2, and will meet 12 times over 6 months.

  • The Covenant Community will meet Sunday afternoons from 2:30 – 4:30 PM at Bridgetown’s Eastside location (2120 NE Tillamook St) on the dates listed below. It is absolutely essential that participants in the Covenant Community attend these meetings, so please only consider moving forward if you will miss two or fewer meetings. If you will need to miss more than two of these meetings but still feel the Spirit inviting you to be part of the Covenant Community, consider holding off and starting the next round in October.

    Part 1: Introduction Discernment

    May 5

    May 19

    June 2

    Part 2: The Practices

    June 23

    July 21

    August 18

    September 15

    October 13

    Part 3: Next Steps

    November 10

    November 17

    November 24

  • We will host the Covenant Community Course annually. This first round will be May – November, but the next (and subsequent) rounds will run October – May.

  • What if I really want to go through the Covenant Community Course, but don’t currently have the margin or will need to miss several sessions?

    If you want to participate but don’t currently have time, that’s totally okay! The Covenant Community course is something we will be running annually, so rather than trying to force it to fit now, take the next 6 months or so to slow down and build the margin into your life that you would need in order to participate fully.

    Can I do this with my spouse?

    Yes! If both of you separately discern an invitation from the Spirit to proceed, you are more than welcome to join go through the course together. That said, there is no requirement or expectation that couples move through this journey together, as each of you may have different demands on your time or different invitations from the Spirit.

    How is this different from a Bridgetown Community?

    While both are ways of participating in your spiritual formation alongside others, the Covenant Community is uniquely focused on doing so through Bridgetown’s Rule of Life. But they are not interchangeable, as one of the practices on Bridgetown’s Rule of Life is Community and involves active participation in a Bridgetown Community.

  • Registration for this round of the Covenant Community Course is closed, but we wil be starting our next round in October. Registration for that should open up around September.